• SLD/MLD Residencies
• Complex Needs Residencies
• Inclusive Residencies
• Inservice Training - INSET
• Artist Training
• Touring
• Events
• Bamboozle Bites

Inclusive Residencies

Our inclusive residencies are designed so that students from main stream and special schools can work together to mutual benefit.  They are usually a week long and take place in theatres, drama studios or school halls which we transform into theatre-like spaces.  Each residency will have between 1 and 4 schools involved with a maximum of 24 students in total.

CASE STUDY

Residency at Guthlaxton Performing Arts College, Leicestershire.
4 – 9th November 2007

“This is the best week I have experienced in a long teaching career”
Joe O’Flynn, Birkett House School

This was an exciting new venture for us.  It is the first time we have worked with BTEC performing arts students and those from a special school.   Half of the BTEC students were participants in the residency alongside students from the special school, while the other half provided the technical and design support for the week long project.

The Residency Programme
The theme for this week was “Welcome to your life”.  On the first day students met Kate – a woman who had lost her memory and was surrounded by a series of boxes with what seemed like personal possessions in each one.  For example one had a gramophone, records and sheet music in, while another had a hat on a hat stand, and a third photographs in another.  The students were invited to speculate as to what they all meant and helped Kate remember parts of her life to which the possessions referred.  It soon became evident that a dark creature had been stealing Kate’s possessions and the memories that went with them.  The group decided that they had to get them back.
They went on a journey of discovery with Kate, during which they faced their fears, explored their own memories through dance, song and creating memory boxes.

Sharing of work
At the end of the week the students informally shared some of what they had been doing with an audience of parents, other students, staff and governors.

Venue
Drama studio at Guthlaxton Performing Arts College, Leicestershire.

Participants
10 students and 3 staff from Birkett House Special School, Leicestershire
9 BTEC students and 1 staff from Guthlaxton College

Artistic Team
Sue Pyecroft, designer and production manager  
Dawn Bowden, actor
Miriam Keye, dancer
Rachael Jeffery, facilitator
Steno, musician
9 BTEC students from Guthlaxton College as design team, lighting, sound, music, film and photographic recording of the project.